Yau-Man Chan, a Fan Favorite of “Survivor” TV Show Applies Resourcefulness as a Real IT Leader - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership By Tom Kaneshige

The reality television series “Survivor” may seem like an improbable teaching tool for an IT executive. But in today’s changing workplace — where business users wield more tech choice and power — Yau-Man Chan has found kindness and smarts can be powerful weapons in an IT leader’s toolkit.

April 08, 2008 — CIO — What does IT have in common with the reality television game show Survivor, which tests contestants’ survival skills in remote locations as they compete for the grand prize?

For Yau-Man Chan, quite a lot. Both call on his defining traits of kindness and intelligence.

Here’s one illustrative scene. Last year on a deserted island in the South Pacific, burly men tried to open a wooden crate filled with supplies. Their muscles were flexed for cameras filming the first episode of Survivor: Fiji, but their attempts were in vain.

Then, a slim Asian man with glasses picked up the crate and smashed its corner against a rock. The crate broke into pieces. “The corner is a rectangle’s weakest point,” says Chan.

“Muscle for muscle, I know I cannot compete with them, so I have to use every resource to advance things to the next level,” says Chan, who holds a physics degree from MIT. Intelligence and resourcefulness, particularly as an underdog, were two of Chan’s best tools during Survivor: Fiji—and at his full-time job as CTO of the College of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley.

Chan bolsters his smarts with kindness. In Survivor: Fiji, Chan, 55, wasn’t expected to last long against his younger, more athletic rivals. But thirty-nine days after the crate bashing, Chan finished the show in fourth place, he also became a favorite of millions of techies’ and reality-television viewers, receiving the highest popularity rating on that season’s show. More… »